Deciding To Be Fair

Voting on Amendment A continues this week. Seattle, Nevada, and West Jersey vote. These presbyteries will provide a challenge. Here is how they voted last time:

Voting Yes in 08-09:

• West Jersey 88-80

That will be an important presbytery to hold. Get out the vote!

Voting no in 08-09:

• Nevada 13-59
• Seattle 91-155

Odds are steep, but it would be nice to get a surprise flipper in one of those. In any case, don't think it cannot happen. Regardless, we can work to change minds and hearts in every presbytery by telling the truth.

Every. Vote. Counts.

Here is the article in a Pennsylvania paper about Presbyterians and the struggle for equality,

In York County and the region, Presbyterians take up gay clergy issue again.

Sigh.

It isn't the "gay clergy issue".

It's about ending discrimination against one category of people and allowing for the freedom of presbyteries to choose their leaders.

Anyway, according to the article:

Momentum nationwide is favoring the advocates of gay ordination, although the vote "might go down to the wire," editor Jack Haberer recently wrote on the blog of the independent Presbyterian Outlook magazine.

As of March 8 , 106 presbyteries had voted with 67 left to go, including Donegal and the nearby Carlisle presbytery, which narrowly rejected the change two years ago with 51 percent of the vote.

For ratification, a net total of at least nine presbyteries would need to switch from opposing gay ordination to favoring it. Thirteen have already done so, while one presbytery switched the other way.

If the remaining 67 presbyteries vote as they did two years ago, the amendment would pass by a narrow margin. Some votes have been close, so it's too early to predict the outcome, Haberer said in an interview.

"People aren't moving from pro to con, or con to pro, but passionate to dispassionate," Haberer said. "That's in part why conservatives have lost so much ground."

A factor in the shifting momentum could be the dozens of congregations that have left the denomination for smaller Presbyterian bodies, taking their conservative votes with them. Others suspect the influence of a culture increasingly tolerant of gays in the military, employment and other churches.

"I think it's also ... more people knowing gay and lesbian folks," said the Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig , an organizer for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which supports gay ordination.

"More people are understanding the realities of being lesbian or gay. It's not just something people wake up and decide to try today."

That's right, Tricia! Presbyterians can, however, wake up and decide to try to be fair.

According to the above article, Donegal Presbytery will vote on Saturday. We are hoping Donegal will flip as it voted no last time, 63-87.

The tab so far on the way to 87 is 67-46.

Don't miss your chance to make history and vote for equality in the PC (USA)!